If you worry that email outreach or emailing marketing, in general, are no longer effective, that’s not necessarily the case.
According to data cited by Gmass, every dollar spent on email marketing nets $44 back. That’s a pretty impressive return on investment. However, the same statistics don’t hold true when it comes to cold emailing. Cold outreach doesn’t tend to show nearly as favorable results, and it’s easy to get discouraged along the way when you have no idea if someone is even going to open your message, let alone respond.
We’re all bombarded with email messages to the point each day that it can become overwhelming, to say the least. You know if you’re feeling like that in your personal and day-to-day life, your prospects are as well.
So how do you cut through the noise? How do you improve your emails and more specifically your cold emails? How do you get people to really take notice and hopefully also take action?
The following are some tips for improving your process when it comes to cold emails.
Have a Reason for Writing
You need to have a reason for writing when it comes to cold emailing. The reason shouldn’t be general, either. It needs to be as specific as possible.
You need to be able to drill down to a very particular action you want the person who’s going to theoretically be reading the email to make. For example, are you asking for more information about something or someone? Are you asking for a meeting? Are you trying to persuade the person to learn more?
Whatever the reason is, be able to very clearly spell it out. If you’re not sure why you’re writing a cold email, the person who receives that email isn’t very likely to know why either.
Quickly Get to the Point
If you have some compelling context to add to an email that can be effective, but if you’re cold-emailing you probably don’t have that context. Instead of trying to dance around why you’re emailing, jump right into it. Most people are going to be checking their emails on their mobile device, and they may see your first sentence as a preview of what they’re going to be reading.
Don’t try to be gimmicky, and don’t try to delay getting to the point. Let them know straight away what you’re offering or asking of them, and more than that, let the recipient know from the start how it can bring value to their life.
Put yourself in the person’s shoes who will hopefully be reading the email and think about what you would find compelling and valuable.
When you’re writing a cold email, there are some big things to avoid. First, don’t make it about you. It’s supposed to be about the person reading it. The goal is to be offering them something worthwhile in their life—at the end of the day, it has nothing to do with you. Just like it’s not all about you, it’s not necessarily all about your product or service, at least not at the very beginning.
Also, avoid seeming too salesy. It can be tempting to want to jump right in and go all out with your finely honed sales tactics, but that’s not a good way to start. It’s a big turnoff. Leave the hard sell for later, when you have more of a relationship with the person.
Make It Readable
There are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to the technical style and layout of a cold email. You want it to be easy to read and skim. You want the salient points to stand out, and you don’t want the reader to feel like you’ve sent over a novel. Generally, keep it short.
More than that, keep your paragraphs limited to a few sentences, concise and state what you want to state without a lot of extra words.
Also, try to write as you talk. Maybe you even record yourself as if you were speaking your email to the other person face-to-face, and try to capture that in an email.
Finally, when you stop using the templates that you find circulating, and you write like you speak, that voice is in and of itself one of the big things that your emails are going to have that make them unique and sets them apart. Your voice is something that other people can’t replicate, and making that part of your email marketing strategy is important.
